For many years of my adult life, I rejected Irish-American culture. I don't particularly like the way St. Patrick's Day is celebrated in this country with green beer and bad music. Growing up in the 1960s, I had few exposures to anything deeper and "rootsier" than tacky Irish-American treacle.

But there was a shift that started in the late 1980s, and I would argue that it came first in film, with "My Left Foot," "The Dead," "The Commitments," "The Crying Game" and a dozen or soother unsentimentalized movies set in Ireland. And those movies dragged new sounds along with them. At pretty much the same time U2 had climbed into international superstardom with an Irish sound that didn't pander. Those movies and U2, I would argue, created a new market for Irish authenticity. For me it meant a real discovery of and immersion in traditional Irish music. Leave your comments below, e-mail colin@wnpr.org or Tweet us @wnprcolin. Susan McKeown - The Hare's Lament Deanta - Willie and Mary Jason Robert Brown -I Could Be In Love with Someone LikeYouSolas - A Sailor's LifeDropkick Murphys - Fields of AthenryThe High Kings - Fields of AthenryThe High Kings - Step It Out MaryPatrick Streeet - William TaylorLunasa - Morning NightcapLuka Bloom - You Couldnt Have Come At A Better TimeDervish - Sean BhainChristy Moore - Ordinary ManT with the Maggies - Biodd OrmLa Lugh - Bealtaine